Quizzy Mondays update 19/12/22

Greetings friends! So, we're into the final two weeks of the year, which means UC is pausing for its usual Christmas series. Only Connect and Mastermind will be continuing this week though, so, here's a quick review of tonight's events.

 

Only Connect began its play-off round with one of those things it loves doing that I hate: an avoidable rematch, between the Strigiformes and the Cryptics. The former led 5-2 after the first round, and 7-3 after the second that saw a sequence about Shrek villains that I’ve been waiting to see for ages! A better wall saw that lead increase to 17-7 going into Missing Vowels, where they survived a valiant fightback by their opponents to win 18-15.

 

Mastermind was won very narrowly by Jonathan Evans (alumnus of UC whose St John’s Cambridge team were beaten in the SFs by Gail Trimble’s Corpus Christi team), whose 22 points just saw him edge out Bhagwan Manku (alumnus of OC with the Jukeboxers last series) with 21. Stewart Holden and Katherine Pathak also competed, finishing with 17 and 19 respectively.

So, that's these two done for next year; both resume their regular series alongside UC on January the 2nd. OC will be having its first Xmas special on Friday, with three more Monday (26th) to Wednesday (28th) (except in Northern Ireland, where the Wednesday show goes out on the Friday).

 

Xmas UC continues all this week and next; review of the first week's play, hopefully, coming up on Xmas Day itself, if I remember to do it.

 

So, until then, have a Happy Christmas, and sayonara...

University Challenge 2022-23: Repechage Play-Off 2: Bristol vs Oriel

Good evening friends, and welcome to the final regular UC of 2022! The second and final play-off tonight, the one that looks like an easy win on paper; but, as ever, nothing is decided on paper. The winning team would take the final place in the second round, which kicks off when the show returns from its Christmas break on January the 2nd! So, let's do this...

Bristol racked up the highest losing score of the first round, 185 against the 195 of Durham, who overtook them literally right at the end. Hoping to rectify that were the unchanged foursome of: 

Sam Kehler, from Wolverhampton, studying Medicine

Jacob McLaughlin, from Gloucester, studying Economics and Maths

Captain: Tess Richardson, from Reading, studying Chemistry

Alejandro Ortega, from Chalfont St Peter, studying Physics and Philosophy

 

Oriel College Oxford led Christ's College Cambridge for much of their first match before their opponents fought back in the final minutes and overtook them to win 150-135. It would appear that they were playing their reserve in that first match, as Paxo referred to Mr Thomson's replacement here as having missed it due to illness. The new look team were: 

Thomas Ford, from Norway (originally the USA), studying for an MBA

Jerric Chong, from Malaysia, studying Physics and Philosophy

Tanmayee Deshprabhu, from South Oxfordshire, studying Engineering  

Katy Marchant, from Leeds, studying Ancient and Modern History

 

So, off we set for the final time this year, and Mr McLaughin came in a bit too quickly on the first starter, losing five; Mr Chong did the honours, and the Oxonians took two bonuses on fallacies. A second penalty sent Bristol back to -10, but Mr Ortega soon got them going properly as he took the next starter, before it was third time lucky for Mr McLaughlin as he finally opened his account after that; two bonuses were taken both times. Neither side took the first picture starter; the bonuses, on locations described as the 'navel of the World', went to Oriel, who took a single bonus to retake the lead, 35-30.

The lead increased when Bristol lost another five, but an unfortunate incident where Mr Ford buzzed but Mr Chong answered (correctly) denied Oriel the points. (A Mr B. Walsh could be heard saying "Wrong person answered!" in everyone's minds!) Bristol retook the lead with a starter and two bonuses, and a second starter in a row and a full set of bonuses meant they suddenly had double their opponents' score. Oriel responded with a perfect 25 of their own to close the gap back to 10 points, but Mr Kehler immediately bit back by taking the next; a single bonus on session musicians was taken, with another unluckily going begging after Ms Richardson misheard her teammate's confer. The music round, on acts who collaborated with director Don Letts, went to Oriel; two bonuses meant they had cut the gap down to 85-80.

And Mr Chong then gave them the lead with the next starter, and Mr Ford took the one after that, which meant they hit three figures first; just the one bonus was taken both times however. Back came Bristol through Mr McLaughlin, who took two starters in a row; two bonuses on BAFTA winning documentaries followed the first of these, and a full set on Greek letters from the second gave them back the lead. But back came Oriel with the second picture round, on pairs of tennis players who contested 'Battle of the Sexes' matches; no bonuses were taken though, as they only recognised one player from each pair, which meant they still narrowly trailed, 125-120.

Mr McLaughlin duly swept home the next starter, with just one bonus following; Mr Ford bit back with the next, and another sole bonus meant they were just five behind again! Mr McLaughlin took what looked like an educated guess on a Chinese dynasty for the next starter, but was correct, and a timely full bonus set on Caribbean flags put the Avonsiders within sight of victory. Another starter to the impressive Mr McLaughlin pretty much wrapped up the game, and a pair of bonuses ensured there'd be no repeat of last time. Mr Ford did take the final starter for Oriel, and was part way through single handedly taking a bonus set on Pennsylvania when they were cut off by the gong; Bristol won 185-150.

A fine contest, close all the way through until Bristol just about run away far enough at the end. Well done them, and best of luck in the second round! Hard lines to Oriel, but they gave a fine account of themselves both times and can go away with their heads held high; well played!

The stats: Mr McLaughlin was the best buzzer of the night with seven, while Mr Ford was best for Oriel with five. On the bonuses, Bristol managed 20 out of 30 (with three penalties) and Oriel 12 out of 26.

And that's it for regular UC this year; the Christmas specials start next Monday, running for the next two weeks afterwards, and we resume the regular series with the first second round match on January the 2nd.

Only Connect concluded its qualifier round with the returns of the Croot Family and the Crustaceans. The latter led 5-2 after the first round, and 11-6 after the second (I claim three points on the Call Me Maybe question!). Even performances on the Walls left their lead at 17-11 going into Missing Vowels, and they maintained it there to win 24-14. It will carry on business as usual next Monday, then break for its annual four Christmas specials, the first on the 23rd, the other three on Boxing Day, the 27th and the 28th, followed by repeats of old ones for the rest of the week (including the weekend!) before also resuming the regular series on the 2nd.

 

Mastermind was won very comfortably by Blake Robinson, whose 22 points saw him comfortably ahead of the rest of the field, with fellow contenders Paddy Pamment, Katie Lane and Suzette Aagaard pretty close together with 12, 15 and 16 respectively. It too will be continuing as usual next week, before taking a week off and coming back on the 2nd.

University Challenge 2022-23: Repechage Play-Off 1: Sheffield vs Newnham

Good evening friends, and welcome to the first of this year's UC play-offs! As I said in my first round review last night, we have two play-offs where, on paper, one looks an easy win and the other too close to call. Tonight's was the 'close' one, as two teams whose first round scores were just ten points in it met; the winners would take the penultimate place in the second round.

Sheffield scored 170 in their first match; so did their opponent U.C.L., but it was they that took the tie-breaker question to win the game. They were the same foursome as before: 

Rachel Haw, from North Yorkshire, studying Evolution and Behaviour

Andrew Fisher, from Sheffield (originally Newcastle), studying Pure Maths

Captain: Lewis Jones, from Haverhill in Suffolk, studying Journalism

Danny Lardner, from Blackpool, studying Geography

 

Newnham College Cambridge were with us just two weeks ago, where they finished with 160, just fifteen behind their opponents Courtauld. They were also unchanged from before: 

Bethan Holloway-Strong, from Surrey and Australia, studying English

Hannah Bowen, from Gateshead, studying German, Russian and Polish

Captain: Roma Ellis, from Nottingham, studying Philosophy 

Chén Zhou, from Suzhou in China, studying the History of Science

 

So, off we set again then, and Ms Ellis opened the scoring for the night by identifying Stockton's 'Infinity' Bridge; one bonus on social history followed from the opening set of the night. The Newnham captain took the second starter of the night as well, and the third too for good measure; no bonuses came from the first set, but two were taken from the second, on words containing 'erm'. The first picture round, on US state seals, gave Sheffield their first points of the night; a well taken full set reduced the gap to 45-25.

Ten points were then lost to two successive penalties however (albeit one of them was a 'just an' interruption), but Newnham hit the post of the open goal both times (topical football joke unintentional). Mr Lardner finally recouped the lost points, and Sheffield made up for it with two of the resulting bonuses. Only for another five to go on the next starter, where a year was needed and he was "ONE YEAR OUT!"; Ms Ellis wasn't, and Newnham duly took a full bonus set on the land of Shambala. Back bounced Sheffield via Mr Lardner again, giving them a bonus set on Graham Greene, which I suspect my Dad might've done well on; Sheffield did well too, getting two. A starter to Newnham and a single bonus on the Island of Java was followed by the music round, on Motown songs where James Jamerson played bass; Sheffield took this, and took two bonuses, which took the scores to 85-70.

Ms Bowen duly increased Newnham's lead with the next starter; no bonuses followed, but Ms Bowen then took a second starter in a row, and a single bonus did follow this time. A third Newnham starter in a row was then taken by Ms Ellis, giving them a bonus set on words featured in the lyrics of Barbie Girl (yes, really) that will certainly feature in this series' highlights reel if I decide to do one this year! They took another single one from that. They also took the second picture round, on rococo paintings of women pining for absent lovers, but got nothing from the bonuses, which nonetheless took their lead to 135-70. 

 

Mr Fisher finally atoned for his earlier mistakes by identifying Ho Chi Minh for the next starter, and Sheffield kept themselves in the game with a full bonus set on script fonts. Mr Fisher did the right thing and took an educated early punt on the next starter, but this time was wrong and lost five; Mr Holloway-Strong picked up, and a single bonus put the Cambridge side within sight of victory. And when Mr Lardner shot wide with another educated flyer on the next starter, and Ms Chen took the points, that was game over; just one bonus followed again, but it didn't really matter now. Sheffield did deservedly reach three figures via a starter and a single bonus, and did take the last starter of the game too, but there was no time for any bonuses. At the gong, Newnham won 175-110.

A most enjoyable contest that I thought; well played both teams! Well done Newnham, a decent performance despite a slightly low bonus rate, and best of luck in the second round! Hard lines to Sheffield, who still did pretty well for themselves, and, had some of those early buzzes gone their way, could well have pulled it much closer; thanks for playing though!

The stats: Ms Ellis was the best buzzer of the night with six, while Messrs Jones and Lardner got three each for Sheffield. On the bonuses, Sheffield managed 13 out of 18 (with a damaging five penalties) and Newnham 11 out of 36; like last week, if they improve on that in the second round, they could definitely have a run in this series.

Next week's match: Bristol vs Oriel in the second play-off, then we break for two weeks of Christmas UC

Only Connect’s third qualifier match was a much anticipated clash between two of the strongest performers of the first round, the Cunning Planners and the Harlequins. The former led 6-4 after a strong first round where both managed multiple early buzzes, but the former took the better of the second round to lead 11-8. A perfect wall saw that lead edge up to 21-12 going into Missing Vowels, and that lead increased there to give them a 27-16 win.

 

Mastermind was a low scoring match that nonetheless ended pretty excitingly, with Colin Rogers-March and Christopher McBride finishing joint first with 17 and no passes each; Colin provided the only correct answer of the resulting tie-break round to win the game. Fiona Templeton and Leigh Haggar also competed, finishing with 16 and 14 respectively.

University Challenge 2022-23: First Round Review

So, it's rather crept up on us, but we've reached the first round of this year's UC! So, time for my end of round report. After last year's rather low scoring first round, this year's has seen a strong improvement, with lots of strong performances and good scores, from both winning and losing teams, giving us a very strong line-up for the elimination stage of the series indeed! And, at the end of it, our fourteen winning teams, along with their scores and margins of victory, are:

• Durham (195, 10)
• Newcastle (195, 80)
• University College Oxford (175, 65)
• Cardiff (230, 180)
• Royal Holloway London (155, 45)
• Queen's University Belfast (165, 60)
• St Andrews (140, 20)
• U.C.L. (170, won on tie-breaker)
• Christ's College Cambridge (150, 20)
• Jesus College Cambridge (225, 120)
• Southampton (215, 100)
• Bangor (135, 10)
• Courtauld Institute of Art (175, 15)
• Robert Gordon (210, 120)

 So, those, as ever, are the raw figures for the round; but what more to them is there?

Well, Cardiff have the highest score of the first round, with Jesus just 5 behind them, so they would probably start as the big favourites to progress; Jesus, in particular, as they achieved their score against a team good enough to get into three figures themselves. Ditto Southampton, who finished with just ten fewer in similar circumstances.

Just below them, Robert Gordon are the fourth and final team to break 200, and Newcastle who only just missed out against another respectable scoring opponent. Both would also be fancied to progress in favourable circumstances.

You would also have to say Durham, who only just defeated the similarly high scoring Bristol team (more on them later), would also be strongly fancied; U.C.L. and Courtauld, who also defeated high scoring runners-up, would also be ones to watch there.

 

Then you have the three teams, Univ., Queen's and Royal Holloway, who won with middling scores against teams who also scored decently. And finally, you have the three team, Christ's, St Andrews and Bangor, who won lower scoring close contests against pretty evenly matched opposition (one of whom completes the play-off line-up).

 

So, although some teams would probably start out looking more favourable than others, the fact is this is a pretty even line-up, and that's before we even take into account the four strong teams competing in the play-offs, two of whom will complete the line-up. And we know from our many years of covering UC this thoroughly how unreliable first round form can be to gauging how a team will perform in the second round (though, that said, it has been getting a bit better on that front in recent series).

 

And then, there are those play-offs, being contended by:

• Bristol (185, 10)
• Sheffield (170, lost on tie-breaker)
• Newnham College Cambridge (160, 15)
• Oriel College Oxford (130, 20)

And the draw for which pits, as expected, Bristol vs Oriel a week tomorrow and Sheffield vs Newnham tomorrow. (Unless the BBC website has gotten the preview pictures the wrong way round)

You'd have to say Bristol would be heavily fancied to beat an Oriel team who do look a bit like the odd one out from this group, while tomorrow's game would be far too close to call (Weaver's Week, published earlier, favours Newnham). But then, I said the same about last year's play-offs, and the 'easy' one turned out to be very close (albeit in far from normal circumstances) and the 'close' one ended up a pretty comfortable victory. So, who knows?

All we do know is that, whichever two of these teams come through to the second round, they would definitely be worth keeping an eye on against whoever they end up being drawn against. In fact, as we've seen before, one draw between two well-matched first round teams can often blow the whole field wide open.

One things we can all agree on, at least, is that this has been a fine first round, a definite improvement on last series' forgivably low scoring start, and, if things continue this way, the second round could be very good indeed! And probably quite brutal too, as you suspect at least a couple of the teams who fall in this round will be ones who, under different circumstances, could've gone a lot further.

So, so far so good this series; here's hoping it continues in that way! Best of (retrospective) luck to all involved!

Back tomorrow with my usual Monday night quiz write-up; until then, sayonara...